The area of security has received a great deal of attention in recent years due to the need to protect infrastructure and other high value assets. Part of this protection often includes alarming doors, windows, access panels, server doors, manhole covers, and other points of entry. There are many traditional switch designs that have been successfully employed to address many of these applications in the past; however, prior-art switches have several disadvantages, such as: sensitivity to electrical noise in their environment; susceptibility to corrosion, which limits where they can be located; an inability to operate over long distances, incompatibility with explosive environments, and difficulty in detecting tampering.
A security switch that mitigates some or all of these disadvantages would be a significant step forward in the state of the art.